A former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, is among those warning against the moves.
Two top officials of Afenifere, the Yoruba notable group, also insisted at the weekend that electronic transmission of results is the only way to stop fraud during elections.
Whereas the National Organising Secretary of Afenifere, Abagun Kole Omololu, said electronic transmission will eliminate election rigging or at least reduce it to the barest minimum, the group’s National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, said there had been no cogent reason to controvert the position of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which argued that electronic transmission of election results in Nigeria is possible.
On his part, the Secretary General of the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), Dr Kunle Olajide, said any attempt to stop electronic transmission of election results will be a sort of fight against democracy which will not go well with Nigerians.
The two chambers of the NASS had, in July, while voting on the amendment to the Electoral Act, provided for conditional electronic transmission of election results by INEC.
While the Senate empowered the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to determine the use of electronic transmission of election results, the House of Reps, on its part, gave INEC the discretion to decide ‘where applicable’ to use manual or e-transmission of election results.
The decision has been a subject of public debate with many saying that by subjecting the transmission to the approval of the NCC, the lawmakers were hindering INEC’s independence and transparency of polls.
INEC insists
But INEC insisted it has the capacity to transmit election results electronically.
“That is absolutely unconstitutional. You cannot ask INEC to seek the approval of another agency of government to transmit results electronically when actually INEC has power to impose duties on NCC to achieve electronic transmission of results”, Okechukwu Ibeanu, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Electoral Operations and Logistic Committee, said.
“I completely agree that in the context of underscoring the independence of the Commission, Section 160 of the Constitution has done everything it needs to do. What is left is for INEC to use the power it has under the Constitution to achieve its aim”.
Harmonization
Senate and the House of Representatives, last week, set up a 14-man committee (seven lawmakers on each side) to harmonize the differences in the bill.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, while announcing the Committee members, said it would be chaired by Hon. Akeem Adeyemi (APC, Oyo), while Hon. James Faleke (APC, Lagos), Hon. Chris Azubogu (PDP, Anambra), Hon. Blessing Onuh (APC, Benue), Hon. Aisha Dukku (APC, Gombe), Hon. Unyime Idem (PDP, Akwa Ibom), and Hon. Ahmad Abdullahi Kalambaina (APC, Sokoto) are members.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan, on his part, said the Senate Conference Committee will work with its House of Representatives counterpart in order to be on the same page on electronic transmission of poll results by INEC.
According to Lawan, Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, APC, Kebbi North is the leader of the team.
Other members are Senators Kabiru Gaya, APC, Kano South to represent North West; Danjuma Goje, APC, Gombe Central for North East; Uche Ekwunife, PDP, Anambra Central for South-East; Sani Mohammed Musa, APC, Niger East for North Central; Ajibola Basiru, APC, Osun Central for South-West and Matthew Urhoghide, PDP, Edo-South.
Of the seven members of the Senate Committee, only Urhoghide voted YES for electronic transmission of election results. Ekwunife was absent during the voting whereas the other five members, who are of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, voted NO for electronic transmission of election results.
But ahead of the harmonization of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill by the NASS Conference Committee, Ekweremadu, a former Deputy Senate President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senator representing Enugu West, insisted that the only way Nigeria could move forward in the nation’s electoral reform is to allow electronic transmission of election results.
Speaking in an exclusive chat with Sunday Vanguard, Ekweremadu said: “It (electronic transmission of election results) is the way to go if we want to make progress in our electoral reforms.
“I am hopeful that the National Assembly will adopt electronic voting and electronic transmission as part of the new Electoral Act. “We are lobbying accordingly to convince our colleagues on the benefits of electronic management of our elections.
“It will reduce rigging and thuggery by 80%.”
Asked on the possibility of electronic transmission of election results being manipulated, he said: “Criminals can manipulate any system anywhere.
“But the margin of the credibility of elections will be high with electronic management. Thugs will be completely eliminated and results will come in real time”.
Status quo
Afenifere National Organising Secretary of Afenifere, Omololu, also contributing, told Sunday Vanguard, “It is unfortunate that the lawmakers in the National Assembly are standing against electronic transmission of results just on the whims of members’ desire to maintain the status quo of electoral malpractices.
“The major operational entities involved in the electoral process have come out to fault the stance of the lawmakers, insisting that the capacity for electronic transmission of elections is not to be doubted.
“The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission have, at different times, countered the legislators on the matter.
“It therefore breeds serious suspicion, the intention of the lawmakers in trying to truncate the inclusion of electronic transmission in the electoral law.
“This smirks of mischief and underhanded way to undermine the integrity of elections in times to come.
“The received wisdom is that electronic transmission will eliminate rigging or at least reduce it to the barest minimum.
“It will be a practical demonstration of the forward movement of our electoral process which we have tinkered with in the past 22 years, if we adopt electoral transmission of election results, moving forward.
“We must not be unmindful of the fact that the 2019 presidential election results were, indeed, transmitted to the server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“It (server) was expressly dismantled, and thereafter denied, when legal proceedings commenced in the aftermath of the election.
“We can recall the repeated assaults on the Abuja headquarters of the African Independent Television (AIT) by security operatives at the height of that election.
“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) established a Situation Room at the location from where it filtered goings-on and results from every polling booth in the country.
“This precedent is the evidence that Nigeria does have the capacity for electronic transmission of election results.
“We must not forget as well that the Situation Room established by the PDP in Edo State during the 2020 governorship election made falsification of election results foolproof.
“No one is forgetting the fact that blank spots are in places, but, with the multiplicity of mobile service providers in the country, we can reach our people in the hinterlands.
“It is time we got it right by embracing electronic and real time transmission of results as is done in advanced economies.
“We have the capacity and resources to make it happen; hence it will be a coup against voters and the nation if the lawmakers succeed in this ignoble act”.
Kaduna example
The National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Ajayi, said “it is comforting that the National Assembly is now trying to right what was clearly a wrong step earlier taken.
According to him, INEC has always expressed its readiness and capability to conduct elections and transmit results electronically.
“There has been no cogent reason to controvert this position of the electoral umpire”, he stated.
“As a matter of fact, had INEC stated that it would be unable to do so, it would have been incumbent on us, including the National Assembly, to identify what the obstacles could be and tackle them, because transmission of election results electronically will go a long way in reducing election malpractices considerably.
“It is also in tandem with the international best practices.
“As luck would have it, INEC said it is capable and ready to do it. We should encourage and cooperate with it.
“Incidentally, Kaduna State government that was not even as equipped as INEC successfully used the electronic means when it conducted local government elections last month”.
On his part, YCE Secretary, Olajide, asked the NASS Conference Committee to harmonize the Section concerning electronic transmission of election results in the interest of Nigerians and democracy.
“It will be a shame to Nigerians that registration of voters can be done electronically while some people are saying election results can’t be transmitted same way”, he said.
“It will also be a sort of fight against democracy and they know it will not augur well with Nigerians.
“I appeal and advise them to harmonize their position in a way that election results can be transmitted electronically in the general interest of the country”.
Situation Room/Jonathan
Early last week, The Situation Room, a coalition of over 70 CSOs, had spoken in support of credible and transparent elections, urging the harmonization committee of NASS on the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill to accept the version of the Bill that would allow INEC transmit election results electronically.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan also added his voice to the raging debate last Wednesday, insisting that electronic voting was the way to go.
